End of June frugal

I have scarlet runner beans on the trellis. These were "leftover" flowers from the ones that went into hanging pots my daughters made. So I decided to plant them here with the scarlet runner beans I plant each year for the humming birds.They like the red blooms.

Every day frugal choices... windows open when it's cool, curtains shut during hottest part of day. Fans when in rooms and turned off when not. AC only when it's above 80° and it's set for 78°. We wash dishes by hand,,,no dishwasher here. I mix blue Dawn ,2/3rds soap to 1/3rd water and put that in small dish soap bottles. I use blue Dawn because it is a multi-use item. I use vinegar to clean the windows and the sinks (vinegar and baking soda helps keep drains clear).Turn off power strips to coffee makers, computers etc. We had summer heat in  the 90s-100s and now are down to low 70's with night lows in the low 50's ...was tempting to turn furnace on when the house was down in low 60's but instead got "Fall" like clothes back out and wore them. Did laundry with cold tap water, homemade laundry soap and dried on clothes line and drying rack.Make a point of transferring money to savings acct every week even it's only $1. Save all my change. Use Speedway rewards card for 3¢ off a gal. Used Kroger's rewards card  and split the point into 2 different fill ups. Used CVS points to get money off items that was on sale and I had coupons for. Kept my Walgreen's card connected to my exercise tracker to get points there.

Didn't water the gardens because of all the rain. Also couldn't fertilize so that's going to go farther.

Reorganized stock up in upstairs... made list of what is needed to run us through 6 months, figuring 4 months without income or very little income beginning of 2018 when Hubby retires. Researched his options with retirement. We paid off our Ch 13 (slow pay bankruptcy) in Dec that was caused when he went to 3 days a wk for 2 yrs and medical bills going through the roof with my heart failure. Rebuilding credit and savings and researched the credit cards to get. One for each of us. Didn't worry about interest rate because we pay in full before it's due. Do need to research best place to put savings for 3-6 months emergency fund.

Did click list at Kroger's. Definitely kept me reined in.  THEN went a week later to Kroger's with paper coupons after matching meat coupons with sales . Yes meat coupons that are so few and far between.My meat slicer I replaced has had a work out.  I also pulled a London broil that had been in the freezer and sliced half of it very thin for  Philly steak subs(wraps) and then used the leftover for stir fry with snow peas from the garden and finished those leftovers in a frittata. The other half was marinaded,
 grilled and then sliced. We used the leftovers on top of salad from the garden. Sliced eggplant, yellow squash and zucchini with my meat slicer for several meals.Sliced chicken breasts and did the same as the London Broil.

Harvest garlic scapes, garlic, storage onions, green onions, lettuce, snow peas (done), radishes (done),
thyme, oregano, garlic chives, chives, rose petals(done), and lavender. Have more herbs that will need harvested and processed for storage this coming week.

Cut my pain meds in 4ths with approval of doctor.

Got a $20 discount, swagbucks and 2 days free on the car rental I got last week when we were down to only the motorcycle and it was storming.

Our son borrowed our truck while his was in for repairs and he found we had a very small gas leak in the fuel line as he parks in the garage and we are on a gravel lane. Our mechanic (who lets us make payments without interest) said if he can just repair it instead of replace it he will. That will be done during shut down so we won't need to rent a car. Mechanic will bring Hubby back home when he drops it off and drop off truck here at home when it's done. Our youngest has our car as she lost her ride to work when she left her ex.

I cashed in my Pine Cone survey points and my Swag bucks.

Our landlord decided to NOT raise the rent with property taxes that went up and since we pay for our dogs to be here on a monthly charge we figured he would just want to leave is as if we still had Miss Kira but he actually lowered it by 5% due to us doing all the mowing including the part he said he would take care of in the lease. He has mowed the entire thing a couple times when our mower was down for repairs.

Hubby repaired the riding lawn mower, wheel broke off the mower deck.

Hubby got a bonus and we put half in savings and the other half was for a trimmer as ours died and it's big need here. We found one at the hardware store on sale for $50 cheaper than I had priced everywhere else at PLUS we had a $25 coupon off  $100 of anything we bought at the store AND then since we bought a gal of the fuel (50/1) for it we got another discount and double the yrs in warranty and they do the servicing of it for the warranty. SO I was able to put more in to savings. :)

Compared to last year we lowered our electric by 5 %. this past month AND our propane usage by 35%

Blessed Be